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Runaway Dog Sled
Location: North Pole, Alaska Date: December 24, 1991 Story On December 24, 1991 in North Pole, Alaska, Rick Warren decided to take his three-year-old daughter, Ashley, for a ride on the family's dog sled as they had done so many times in the past. "My husband loves dog sledding. He is just fanatic. I get a little paranoid about him taking Ashley out some there's too many things that could happen," remembers Mrs. Warren. She told Ashley to be a good girl and listen to Rick. On that afternoon, it was five degrees below zero. "Normally I'd anchor the dogs off when I hook them up so if they were excited to take off their anchor down but they have always set in their spot. So that day I decided not to use it," said Rick. He put Ashley on the front of the sled and was about to get the last dog out when the sled suddenly took off with Ashley on it. Rick yelled his commands at the dogs to stop but they would not. "I just watched the sled pull away from me. I could hear Ashley screaming the whole time. She was yelling at the dogs to stop and then she was yelling for me to help," said Rick. Rick kept searching without finding any sign of the sled. More than 30 minutes went by. "The thought of her dying ran through my mind. It was a horrifying thought but they were heading down in an area where there was so many different trails," said Rick. Two off-duty medics Sean Eldritch and Brett Lewis happened to be snowmobiling in the area that day. "We got down the room trailer about approximately two miles. This man comes running straight at me," said Sean. Rick yelled that he needed help and Sean asked him to get on the snowmobile. He did and they went searching for Ashley and the dogs. "The first time we saw was Ashley a sleeping bag. I thought she was dead because the sleeping bag wasn't moving. There was nothing in the sleeping bag," said Rick. They found her lying in the snow and crying because she was cold. "When I first got to the little girl she was as cold as a popsicle. Her hands were pretty cold and her arms were shaking in the air. It was hard to tell if she was shivering at that point because she was so excited about seeing her father. I made a quick assessment of the little girl's injuries and I did notice frostbite on her cheek and her hand," said Brett. Sean carried her in his arms and helped Rick get her home to warm her up. Brett decided to search for the dogs. "I found another trail and it dumped right out onto the railroad tracks and the dogs were running down the center of the tracks," said Brett. He grabbed ahold of the sled, jumped from his snowmobile, and the dogs stopped. He then brought them back to Rick and he thanked Brett and Sean for tracking them down and finding his Ashley. "The main thing was that Ashley was okay and it was a pretty good Christmas present," said Brett. Category:1991 Category:Alaska Category:Holiday Category:Christmas